Merit of Prof. Casimiro Pio recognized with the title "Honorary Scientific Coordinator of CESAM"

25/07/2017

At its last plenary session (July 7), the CESAM Scientific Council decided, by acclamation, to award the Professor Casimiro Pio with the title of Honorary Scientific Coordinator of CESAM.This title represents the recognition, by the integrated members of CESAM, of the exemplary course of Prof. Casimiro Pio in the construction and scientific coordination of this UA Research Unit since its inception. Casimiro Pio was recognized by its integrated and inclusive management of CESAM, based on transparency. Under its coordination, the Center achieved the reputation of excellence in the national panorama of the Research Units in the area of ​​the Environment and the Sea.

Sónia Cruz and Paulo Cartaxana, from the DBIO and CESAM, and Jorge Marques da Silva, from the University of Lisbon, advance with important conclusions about the peculiar carbon metabolism in benthic diatoms. The researchers conclude that the availability of carbon in these microalgae limits their photosynthesis, although they contain mechanisms that increase the carbon concentration in a key enzyme of photosynthetic activity, and determines complex vertical migratory behaviors of these cells.

This study gains particular relevance in the sense that the main source of inorganic carbon for plants and algae - CO2 - is produced and released by a number of human activities and leads to climate change.

Member of CESAM participates in research on mysterious zone of fault Azores-Gibraltar

24/07/2017

At Central Atlantic deep-sea, between the Azores and Gibraltar, there is a fault zone that results from the complex interaction between the African, Eurasian, and Iberian plates. It was in this seismic region, connecting the SWIM and Glória Faults, that took place an oceanographic expedition involving researchers from CESAM.

Elisabete Maciel postdoctoral researcher at DBio and CESAM and coordinator of the HALOFOOD Project, whose purpose is to use lipidomics as a tool to search for the appropriate place in Ria where halophytes growth more efficiently to produce good quality food for human consumption and livestock nutrition taking into account their content in lipid bioactive compounds. Lipids have nutritional and health benefits, with the potential of halophytes used to range towards new applications.

New species of bacteria described by biologists of the DBIO / CESAM pays tribute to Prof. António Correia

14/07/2017

A new species of bacteria, recently described by researchers from the DBIO and CESAM in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, was named Saccharospirillum correiae. The specific epithet correiae was attributed in honor of António Correia, a microbiologist and Professor at UA, who died in 2016. The bacterium is one of many new species that lives inside a common plant in the Ria de Aveiro, better known as white gram.

This honor wants to remember and highlight the contribution given by António Correia in research and teaching in the field of microbiology in Portugal. It is also a tribute from the research group coordinated by António Correia, MicroLab.

LTER site Ria de Aveiro (LTER-RAVE) is part of the Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures of Strategic Interest

In alignment with the European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), set up in 2002, the national Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) launched a call for the Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures of strategic interest. LTER Portugal network was one of the selected RIs for Environmental Sciences (2014-2020), as part of a consortium termed PORBIOTA that includes PORBIOTA, LTER Portugal, ICOS Portugal and Azores BIOPORTAL.

The LTER network is a Long-Term Ecological Research network of sites, on a large spatial scale, where long-term ecological investigation is practiced, with the main objectives of monitoring and storing relevant data in ecology, establishing links among institutions and researchers and promote the exchange of data and knowledge. This organized network of LTER sites first appeared in the United States of America in the 1980's. In 1993 an international network was developed (ILTER) and, more recently, the European network of LTER sites was created.

The main objective of LTER-RAVE site is to contribute to the improvement of integrated management of coastal areas, from catchment to coast, involving the concepts of Science-policy-stakeholders interface. To achieve this objective research has been addressing a clear practical focus on: engagement of stakeholders at different levels; mapping and assessment of ecosystem processes and services using data and indicators available at national and European level; assessment of the impacts and emerging drivers of change; common frameworks and tools for the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Click highlights research from the DBIO / CESAM on mercury levels in parturients

8/07/2017

The study, coordinated by Susana Loureiro, researcher at DBio and CESAM, in collaboration with the Hospital de Aveiro, analyzed the levels of mercury present in the placenta, umbilical cord and hair of 50 parturients. The samples revealed that in 6 percent of the cases, the pregnant women exceeded the limits set by the World Health Organization. This is one of the subjects that will be highlighted in the next issue of Click, the UA radio program transmitted on Saturdays after news of the 3:00 p.m. on Antena 1.

Schematic representation of Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda of CESAM

Carlos Fonseca, DBIO / CESAM, member of the technical commission to analyze fires

11/07/2017

Carlos Fonseca, researcher in the area of ​​nature conservation, is member of the independent technical commission that will analyze the facts related to the fire that broke out on June 17 in Pedrógão Grande, Leiria, which resulted in 64 deaths. In a note on the Presidency's website, the President of the Republic pointed out that it was "an unprecedented legal or political experience" in the "constitutional experience" in Portugal. The commission will operate for a maximum period of three months.